Activating emotions: The impact of high-stakes assessments on teacher anxiety
Written by: Matthew Tragheim
3 min read
MATTHEW TRAGHEIM, LECTURER IN PRIMARY EDUCATION, OPEN UNIVERSITY, UK
John Jerrim has previously explored whether teaching is bad for your health (Sims et al., 2021), the power of positive emotions on performance (Jerrim, 2022a) and patterns of relationships within test anxiety (Jerrim, 2022b). Each of these articles has sought to bring a more robust evidence base to widely held views and beliefs within education. This article will set the context and then engage with Jerrim’s most recent research (Jerrim et al., 2024), involving 1,000 primary school teachers. It will subsequently seek to unpick the possibly controversial viewpoint that activating emotions, through high-stakes assessments, could be a part of positive professional practice.
Assessments are often viewed as the engine of change within schools, measuring the lives of learners as they venture through formal education systems. The year 2000 marked the end of compulsory education for the first cohort of students to expe
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